Friday, September 9, 2011

A Wonderful Wedding in the Woods


(click on photos to enlarge)
TD and I had the great pleasure of attending this past Sunday the wedding of our good friend Nicole Parker to her beau Chris King in the woods of New Hampshire. Well, we weren't exactly roughing it; the wedding was an exuberant celebration of style.
Nicole is a graphic designer and creative director and niece of our friend and neighbor Don Healy who climbed Mount Everest – you remember the Healys all. When a friend of Nicole's suggested she meet a mutual friend, Chris King, an Australian diplomat visiting New York, at Soho House, it was love at first sight. How could he resist Nicole's vivacious personality? They were soon a couple, traveling all over the world to meet. Now Chris is a diplomat with the Australian embassy in New Delhi, India, where the couple lives. And this past weekend they were officially married at the Healy compound in Stoddard, New Hampshire.
First, a spectacular invitation arrived in the mail. Seventy Australians were making the trip to the wedding in Stoddard which is just outside of Keene, so a map, a "boarding pass," and a "passport" were included.

TD and I drove up from Guilford, Connecticut, the day of the wedding and checked into the comfortable Lane Hotel in Keene. Then we headed up to the main event which was held at the Healys' Lakefalls Lodge. The lodge was conceived as a Great Camp in the Adirondack style, and its construction was begun by eccentric New York City divorcée Florence Brooks Aten in the 1920's until the Crash of '29 wiped out her wealth. Don Healy bought the property, which also includes a lake and smaller houses, in 1990.
We parked the car and walked up a gravel driveway. A wedding in New Hampshire should always begin with a gurgling brook and an old mill house, don't you think?

Up the road we passed the area where cocktails would be served after the ceremony. With its orange table clothes, it looked like a Christo installation.

The view from the lodge is out on to a lake and a hill opposite covered with trees. The fresh air was scented with pine and grass.

Rows of chairs were set up facing the lake and the hill beyond for a serene natural setting.

Hanging off the chairs were glass vases filled with orchids. So simple and so pretty. On each chair were red and orange streamers.

The ceremony started when the mother of the bride, Peggy Healy Parker, in a silky purple coat, came down the grassy aisle which had been strewn with red rose petals by three flower girls. Then eight bridesmaids and groomsmen emerged out of the lodge. The theme throughout was red as you can see from the vivid bridesmaids' dresses. Also in red was Andrea King, the celebrant and groom's mother.

And finally came Nicole on the arm of her uncle Don. Her dress was by Vera Wang and its skirt was layered with square silk organza petals with unfinished edges. That dress was beautiful from the front

and the back.

During the ceremony, Carrie Ashley Hill, the maid of honor, sang a poignant song to the couple.

And then they were husband and wife!

After cocktails on the lawn, we proceeded down the gravel road to a big white tent which was hung with buoyant red paper lanterns.

For dinner table assignments, guests were asked to pick up a post card which had their name and the name of a place which was important to the couple. We were seated at Santa Barbara.

The tables were decorated with a rich profusion of red roses.

As the night grew darker the tent glowed with red.

The paper lanterns created an exotic effect.

After dinner, a great rock and roll band from Boston took the stage. This crowd was really ready to party and the soon the joint was jumping. TD and I are not often in vicinity of a rock and roll band so we had fun dancing to one hit after another. Here are Nicole and Chris cutting up the dance floor –

When the reception ended, guests were invited to an after party back at the lodge. As we walked up the driveway we saw that the exterior rock walls of the lodge had been illuminated with red and orange lights. Small hamburgers were served and there was more music and dancing. Nicole arrived in her wedding dress, and I liked that she hadn't changed into a little frock for the after party. That Vera Wang wedding dress with its deconstructed edges was elaborate, but she looked very comfortable in it and made it her own which is a sign of style.
TD and I were ready to call it a night as the younger celebrants carried on. We walked down the driveway to the car and as I looked back over my shoulder past the colored stone walls through the tall French doors of the lodge I saw guests dancing wildly inside to Lady Gaga.

Friday, September 2, 2011

A Trip to Cooperstown


This story first appeared on New York Social Diary.com
After our rafting trip with the Divas on the Delaware, TD and I continued on upstate to Cooperstown, New York. I grew up outside of Utica in New Hartford, New York, so as a child I visited Cooperstown sites with my family, most notably the Baseball Hall of Fame. As an adult though I love the cultural offerings of the town and the preserved eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture of the village which is a national historic district and the home of the New York State Historical Association. We try to visit each summer.

Judge William Cooper purchased 10,000 acres of land on the shores of the scenic Otsego Lake in 1785, and the village of Cooperstown was established the following year. James Fenimore Cooper, the judge's son, was encouraged by his wife to write books set in the area, including The Leatherstocking Tales and The Last of the Mohicans, and he is now recognized as the first American novelist.

Later on, in the nineteenth century, members of the Clark family, whose fortune came from the Singer Sewing Machine company, moved to Cooperstown. In New York City the Clark family famously built the Dakota apartment building and funded the Museum of Modern Art, and in Cooperstown it was instrumental in the development of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Farmers' Museum, and the Fenimore Art Museum.

A little north of town further up the lake is Glimmerglass Opera which was our destination. Well, actually now it's called Glimmerglass Festival. This past year new artistic director Francesca Zambello took over Glimmerglass Opera and renamed it to include more kinds of productions including Broadway musicals. It is housed in the Alice Busch Opera Theater which is a welcoming, modern, airy design that holds more than 900 people. The theater was opened in 1987 and was the first American hall designed specifically for opera in 21 years.

On Sunday morning we drove up to Cooperstown from the Catskills where we had been visiting friends. We drove speedily to arrive at the opera on time. Once there we had a few minutes to order some sandwich wraps and eat lunch. No sooner had we sat down when a nicely dressed woman from a neighboring table approached us carrying a white box. We looked up at her mid-bite. She said, "Today is the first day that same-sex marriage in legal in New York state. It's been a long time coming, and my friends and I are celebrating with a picnic. Won't you have some pie?" She opened the box and cut two slices.
That choked us up.

Into the theater we went to see Deborah Voight in Annie Get Your Gun. Yes, you read that right. The great Wagnerian opera soprano was starring in the bubbly 1946 Broadway show written by Irving Berlin for Ethel Merman. How is that for a combo?

The theater is comfortable and delightful because of its open air walls.

When the show begins the walls slide closed.

It's like when the chandeliers go up at the beginning of the Metropolitan Opera.

Annie Get Your Gun is an entertaining romp about show business and the joke is that it's set in the Wild West in cowboy costumes. The score includes classics like "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better," "I Got the Sun in the Morning," and the rousing "There's No Business Like Show Business." Judy Garland was famously fired off of the 1950 movie version and replaced by Betty Hutton. Deborah Voight is a memorable Annie and makes the role her own. Also in the show was our New York City friend tenor Jonathan Tuzo who is a Young Artist at Glimmerglass. Last summer we attended Jonathan's impressive recital in Cooperstown, and this coming winter he will be singing in the chorus at the Metropolitan Opera.

Many people in the theater were dressed casually in shorts. It was a hot day but I think one should make an effort to dress appropriately for the theater. Like the older woman who was wearing an extremely simple but flawlessly pressed beige linen dress. She carried a beige clutch and wore beige slingbacks, and a big jeweled bracelet jangled on her wrist. Her tan face was naturally lined and her short blondish pony tail was tied with a beige grosgrain ribbon. Her look was polished and refined but also comfortable and effortless. That to me is style.

After the performance, the dynamic Francesca Zambello hosted a question and answer period with other members of the cast and the conductor for the audience while the set was struck on the stage behind them. She said she chose this show because it was written "just 60 years after Carmen," which Glimmerglass is also presenting this summer. "That's not a very long time and it helps to connect the lineage. This show is as important as opera." She also noted that none of this show was electronically miked, which is unusual in the theater now.

We met our friend Jonathan after the performance and then headed back down to town to check in at the Inn at Cooperstown.

I've always wanted to stay here. The seventeen-room inn was designed in 1874 in the Second Empire style by Henry Hardenbergh who also designed the Dakota and the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In the dining room is this portrait of Lucy Cooke as a child, whose family owned the building and who lived in it for 70 years. I liked the cream wallpaper with the big black print.

The red entrance hall reminded me a lot of 611 West German Street, the Victorian house that my grandmother grew up in in Herkimer, New York, which is now the Bellinger Rose Bed and Breakfast.

A convivial porch stretches across the front of the inn.

There we had a glass of wine with Jonathan

and then walked down the street to the restaurant Alex and Ika for dinner.
The next morning we strolled around the village of Cooperstown. The houses are beautifully preserved and maintained.

A pretty back door garden –

Pale geraniums and hostas framed windows which revealed artfully chipped Chippendale chairs.

We made a stop at the Fenimore Art Musuem. It's home, called Fenimore House, was donated by the Clark family, and sits on the site of James Fenimore Cooper's early nineteenth century farmhouse.

Last summer I interviewed curator Dr. Paul D'Ambroiso when the museum hosted an exhibition of John Singer Sargent portraits. Over the past year, he was promoted to president of the museum, and he very kindly came out to say hello to us on Monday morning. He recommended that we walk to the lake to see a new area at the museum.
Down the sloping lawn we went. A kind of roof structure revealed itself in a dip in the land.

We followed the path around a bend and came upon a Mohawk Indian bark house. Growing up in Utica, we learned about the Mohawk and Iroquois Indians who had once inhabited the region. This reconstructed bark house is a fishing and hunting lodge which the Indians would build when traveling for food. Inside the house was Native American Mike Tarbell, an educator who told us more about how it was constructed from trees and bark.

When we came out, Otsego Lake was completely quiet and still. Not one boat was on it, which was surprising for a hot Monday in July. The peaceful transcendent scene was exactly as it would have been hundreds of years ago when Indians lived on its shore.

That is the magic of Cooperstown – wonderful culture and history in an untouched natural setting which inspire and connect the visitor with the past.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Divas on the Delaware


Paddling divas (click on photos to enlarge)

TD and I really have had the best summer. You know, I wish it was summer all year 'round. Recently we spent a week on Fire Island as the guests of our friend Philip and it was heavenly to be at the beach. Previous to that, we had a fun trip to upstate New York. The first stop was Callicoon, a town in the Catskills, where we and friend Bill were guests of friends Karl and Robert for an adventurous river rafting ride called Divas on the Delaware. The second stop was in picturesque Cooperstown, and I wrote about that for New York Social Diary.com; I'll be posting that part next.

Divas on the Delaware is a festive annual event where about one hundred gay men and a handful of women raft down the Delaware River. How could that not be fun? Plus it was that weekend where it was approximately 104 degrees out, so it was a relief to be on the wide, cool Delaware River. We drove to Narrowsburg to a camp ground where the group assembled and then got on a rickety school bus to be transferred to Skinner's Falls. There, we all grabbed a life preserver and an oar, and jumped into a raft.

Everybody made it into a raft and headed down the river.

At the beginning of the trip we hit Skinner's Falls which aren't really falls but more like rapids

but still it was exciting because you did get tossed around a little and had to work to navigate the raft to safety.

After that it was smooth sailing.

In the wide expanse of the river we got separated from the other divas.

It became very quiet and calm. I dunked into the river four times to cool off.

I had thought it would be a noisy, raucous affair but it turned out to be quite peaceful. The scenery was beautiful and the nature was unspoiled. At this bend ahead the river turned right.

A river was lined with pretty houses. This woman sat in the shallow river to escape the summer heat.

There were other rafters on the river too. This blonde girl in front of us had on a Daniel Boone raccoon cap which I thought was appropriate, and chic.

We were on the river for a few hours and eventually arrived at the end, at the place to land, seen here on the left. I took one more dunk into the river to cool off. After we landed, there was a big barbecue lunch at the camp grounds.

By the end of the raft trip I was completely relaxed. The meditative serenity of the river had worked its magic. I can see why river rafting is popular. You do surrender yourself to the beauty of nature.

Up next: the art and culture of Cooperstown.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Summer Pleasure


(click on photo to enlarge)
Recently at the Union Square Farmer's Market, at the Durr's truck, I bought these gladiolas. This big bunch was only $6. I love the spectrum of bright colors, and how they match the peaches and the tomatoes also from the Farmer's Market. When I was growing up, upstate in New Hartford, New York, in the summertime we, the kids, drove with my mother in the station wagon over back country roads to Clinton to a farmer's stand where she bought colorful gladiolas. It was often in the late afternoon when it wasn't so hot and she also bought fresh ears of corn and tomatoes for dinner. When I see gladiolas I think of summer afternoons at that farmer's stand in Clinton. Gladiolas fell out of fashion as a flower but I think the bright spikes of blossoms are pretty glorious. It's time for gladiolas to make a comeback, don't you think?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Last Days of Alexander McQueen


Inside the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo from The New York Times)

"I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress."
Alexander McQueen

On Friday I ran up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 8:30 a.m. to see the Costume Institute's blockbuster show Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty which closed on Sunday. Last year we went to the opening of the Costume Institute show where I had the chance to interview Anna Wintour, but this year because of scheduling I made it up just before the McQueen show closed.

As you probably know the Alexander McQueen show was sensationally popular and in the end it turned out to be one of the ten most visited exhibitions in the history of the museum. The extravagant production paid tribute to the gifted British designer who committed suicide last year at age 40, and everyone wanted to see it.

At 8:30 a.m. there were already lines going up Fifth Avenue of people waiting to get in to see the show. Fortunately I had a VIP pass so I was able to go directly into the exhibit on the second floor. The very first room of the show, which highlighted McQueen's gift for fine tailoring and featured exquisite jackets and trousers, was my favorite.

Then it was into more galleries of his fantastical designs made with glossy black feathers, funereal Victorian lace, blood red velvets and mad touches like little alligator heads used as epaulettes. The galleries were dark – with walls of black or smokey glass or cement block, and the audio effects included howling winds, growling wolves, creaking doors and monster noises. The environment was spooky which matched the Gothic sensibility of the imaginative designer.

" I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil."
Alexander McQueen

The price I paid for waiting until the last days was that the galleries were very crowded but I did my best to see what I could including a small hologram from a McQueen fashion show which featured Kate Moss floating and spinning over the runway like an angel in a dreamy flowing gown of white organza with raw edges. By the end of the exhibit the visitor certainly did fully understand the momentous and singular talent of Mr. McQueen, and felt the sadness of his tragic loss.

I left the exhibit and passed the long waiting line strung through the second floor. When I went down the Grand Staircase I saw that the line circled around the second floor galleries of the Great Hall; all of the museum was one long line to get into the show! Outside on the sidewalk in the hot sun the line on Fifth Avenue circled back and forth, and this was at 11 a.m. I've been going to the Metropolitan Museum for thirty years and I've never seen anything like it.

Now, the show is gone, dismantled to make way for a new exhibition called Wonder of the Age: Master Painters of India, 1100-1900. But, with the magic of the internet, you can tour the McQueen show here with its curator Andrew Bolton:


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Multi-Channel


Darlings, rush on over to New York Social Diary.com, and read my story today about our recent trip to Cooperstown. The trip was inspiring.
And, coincidentally today The New York Times published a big story about the summer season at Glimmerglass.